Royal Air Force Scorton or more simply RAF Scorton is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located next to the village of Scorton in North Yorkshire, England. The base was opened in October 1939 as part of 13 Group RAF Fighter Command and a satellite station of RAF Catterick. It was used by the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the United States Army Air Forces Ninth Air Force during the war. The famous No. 56 Squadron RAF flew Supermarine Spitfires from Scorton during the Second World War. Also the USAAF 422d and 425th Night Fighter Squadrons were stationed at Scorton flying the Northrup P-61 "Black Widow" fighter. After the war, it was kept for a while as a Maintenance Unit base, then disposed of in the 1950s. It is now a site of gravel extraction. History The location was chosen for its flat terrain and its situation close to the now disbanded Eryholme-Richmond branch line that had a sub branch line to Catterick Garrison and RAF Catterick. The first unit to use the airfield was a detachment of Bristol Blenheim aircraft from No. 219 Squadron, which had reformed at RAF Catterick in the same month that Scorton had opened. Although originally designated as a satellite station, in 1941, the site was extended into a 'full' RAF station with 12 hangars and three tarmac runways, with the main east/west runway measuring compared to RAF Catterick's runway which was . This was done because Catterick could not be extended as it was sandwiched between the Great North Road and the River Swale. At the same time, the decoy landing site at Birkby (to the east near to Danby Wiske, came under the command of Scorton, having previously been an asset of RAF Catterick. On its re-opening, the first squadron allocated to Scorton was No. 122, which was equipped with Mark V Spitfires for convoy patrols over the North Sea. No. 122 left for RAF Hornchurch in 1942, with No. 406 Squadron RCAF and No. 219 Squadron later operating from the base. Initially, four aircraft from No. 406 Sqn were detached to Scorton from RAF Drem in February 1942, with the rest of the squadron following in the same year. Both 219 and 406 would later move out again and during 1943, No. 167 Squadron was reformed at Scorton, before moving to RAF Castletown. Between the spring of